


Before the Morning Light

by steffilinos



Category: Arashi (Band)
Genre: M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-08-25
Updated: 2014-08-25
Packaged: 2018-02-14 15:42:14
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,970
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/2197371
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/steffilinos/pseuds/steffilinos
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>
  <i>His grin turned a smile when he watched his – what? Boyfriend? They still hadn’t put a label on what they were doing and Jun wasn’t entirely sure he really needed one so long as it felt <b>good</b> and <b>right</b>.</i>
</p><p>Jun wakes while Sho’s still fast asleep.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Before the Morning Light

**Author's Note:**

  * For [KitKaos](https://archiveofourown.org/users/KitKaos/gifts).



> There is a quote from Augusten Burroughs _Magical Thinking: True Stories_ and I can only recommend this book. :)
> 
> No money was made with this work of fiction. The only thing belonging to me is the plot bunny. No copyright infringement intended. 
> 
> [Kitkaos](http://archiveofourown.org/users/KitKaos) was nice enough to beta. :)

Jun was the first to wake up.

The room was still dark, waiting for the morning to come with dawn lurking just around the corner. But Jun was already wide awake. To his surprise, he felt well-rested and extremely content – quite a surprise given the short night. They might have turned off the lights pretty quickly – okay, knocked over the lamp on Sho’s bedside table - but they sure had had better things to do than sleep.

A wide grin was forming on his lips at the memories of last night and all the unspeakable things they had done in the cloakroom **and** in the shower **and** in bed. Whoever said you were no longer up for the task once you turned thirty clearly was mistaken – and Jun was more than happy to prove him wrong again. Anytime.

But not now, not when Sho was peacefully snoring beside him. His grin turned a smile when he watched his – what? Boyfriend? They still hadn’t put a label on what they were doing and Jun wasn’t entirely sure he really needed one so long as it felt **good** and **right**.

He liked these moments, precious seconds when Sho let his guard down to just be… Sho. True, he probably wasn’t the cutest sleeper, not when he was drooling on his pillow but Jun’s heart tightened in all the right places when he watched the messy hair sticking out in all the different directions and the peaceful expression on his calm handsome features.

Would he be provoking an argument by pulling the plug to Sho’s alarm? Probably. But today was his day off and Sho needed to rest. Dark circles were still prominent under the other’s closed eyes, giving the make-up people a daily challenge before filming. Jun was well aware that Sho had this tendency to overwork – took one workaholic to know another – so he made it his task to ensure his friend got enough sleep, at least from time to time. You could only keep up a mad schedule for so long.

Sighing, Sho mumbled something incomprehensible in his sleep before he pressed his head further into the fluffy pillows and remained in his fetal position. It was incredibly hard to **not** kiss him right now. Resisting the temptation, Jun carefully got up and snuck out of the bedroom, silently closing the door behind him to give Sho more time to rest.

It was his first time in Sho’s apartment – in the morning. In fact, it was the first time **either one of them** had stayed at the other’s place for the night. Usually, Sho would always come up with a poor excuse why he or Jun needed to leave – and Jun always pretended to buy it and not mind at all. In reality, every little goodbye had been a stab in the heart – a bit melodramatic but true.

Sho was… complicated. But weren’t all of them tiny imperfections stitched together with good intentions? Jun was well aware that he was high-maintenance as well, but Sho sometimes took it to a whole new level. Maybe, one day, he would tell Jun what had happened to make him so cautious.

He could wait though – especially now that he could make out cracks in his friend’s armor and could see doors open. Light-years separated him from a spare key to this apartment, but Jun was fine with waiting so long as they steadily took baby steps forward.

The apartment was perfectly silent except for the slight buzz coming from the kitchen’s direction – which had to be the fridge. 

Come to think it, he hadn’t been here often, morning or not. The amount of time Arashi was spending together at work usually led to them going separate ways on their days off. He loved them all to pieces, but if he didn’t make room for his family and other friends when not on set or on stage, he wouldn’t see them at all. As a consequence, he hadn’t even been to all of his bandmates’ apartments – and only three times to Sho’s. 

The first time had been after a drunken night out with Shun where he had deemed it a good idea to confess his undying love to Sho – only to throw up in his colleague’s genkan after he had rung him out of bed. ‘Surprisingly’, Sho hadn’t been too pleased – but he had given Jun a ride home. They’d both pretended to remember none of it the following day.

The second time, they had bumped into each other at a nearby club and one thing had led to another. With neither of them too drunk to know what they were doing, they had given Sho a good excuse to finally buy a new sofa. There were some stains you just couldn’t get out of the fabric no matter how long you were scrubbing.

Jun had been crying when he had shown up in front of Sho’s doorstep for the third time just after receiving the news of a high schools friend’s passing. They had talked – talked all night, had gone to Tokyo Bay and talked some more and watched a new day unfold with glittering rays of light breaking into a thousand sparks on the calm water. That had been the moment Jun had realized this wasn’t just a crush but that he was really in love.

And now he was here again.

Barefooted, Jun wandered through Sho’s apartment, tracing his fingertips over dark wooden shelves filled with books and travel guides, pulling one out every now and then to skim through the pages. Most of them had been read, highlighters marking passages or sticky notes serving as bookmarks. 

Surprisingly, the proportion of non-fiction was lower than expected. Jun found a whole shelf filled with the works of Haruki Murakami and Banana Yoshimoto alone. With a glued back and slightly crumpled edges, ‘After Dark’ seemed to be one of Sho’s favorites. Making a mental note to read it, Jun put the hard-cover back in row with its brothers and sisters and continued his tour through Sho’s home.

The sun was slowly rising, making long shadows dance over the hardwood floors. Still, everything was calm and peaceful, no sound from the bedroom indicating that Sho had woken. Just Jun and the sun were in on this little journey through Sho’s apartment.

Carefully, he gathered the trail of clothes they had left from hallway to living room the night before, seizing the chance to slip back into his briefs and jeans but putting his shirt along with Sho’s stuff into the laundry basket in his friend’s bathroom – a sneaky way of leaving another souvenir in addition to the scratches and love bites.

The first thing Jun noticed when entering the living room was the messy pile of clothes on Sho’s new sofa – making his anal-retentive side squirm. The same went for the pile of newspapers next to the coffee table. His first instinct was to clean up and reinstate some order – Sho probably wouldn’t mind, would he? He was good-natured when it came to these things, a real dickhead when it came to others.

Tentatively, Jun picked up a sweater and sniffed it – fresh from the laundry, he could still smell the softener. No wonder Sho had so much room in his wardrobe when he collected everything on his couch, leaving just enough room to sit down and watch TV on the other end of it.

How could someone who was **always** right on schedule and diligent just be **so messy**? Of course he had to fall for a hopeless case. Shaking his head, Jun slipped into the blue sweater – Sho’s sweater – and gave in, silently starting to fold Sho’s shirts and trousers and sorting them into different piles according to type and color. Sleepyhead could thank him later.

Jun paused when he suddenly held a shirt in his hands he had given Sho… probably ten years ago? It was way past washed out, the once dark black now a borderline gray and the white letter print already cracked into a complicated puzzle – but Sho had kept it. And apparently still wore it, why else would it lie among the laundry? A warm and fuzzy feeling made its way all over Jun’s body – _‘Oh Matsumoto, no need to get all emotional!’_ But it was hard **not** to smile, hard **not** to feel happy when you stumbled over something like this – completely unexpectedly. So Jun continued folding the clothes and placed the ‘artifact’ on top of the T-shirt pile before he got up again.

By now, the room was fully bathed in sunlight and Sho would soon wake up. Maybe it was time to prepare some breakfast to surprise Sho with – give him plenty of reasons to let Jun stay here more often. He couldn’t be the only one who whished to wake up next to the other, could he? Not after what he had just found in the living room.

On his way to the kitchen, Jun stopped once again, this time to inspect the pin board on its door. Postcards from all around the world – probably from Sho’s Keio friends, pictures of him posing with family and friends in front of various sights, but also a picture of Arashi on the cruise ship in Hawaii. Sometimes he was surprised how sentimental Sho could be when he thought no one was watching.

But, if he was honest, Jun had his very own Arashi box at home, collecting everything he deemed worth keeping – which was a lot. It could be obvious things such as their tour shirts, or subtler things like chopsticks from a restaurant they had been to after a concert. So yeah, Jun could be a little sappy as well – but little reminders that their band meant just as much to the others as it did to him did feel good.

It looked like he might have needed a little more sleep after all, getting all emotional in Sho’s apartment while wandering around. It was just – he was happy. Right now, he was really, **really** happy and there were no cameras or crew that forced him to act cool. No reason to hide.

Sighing, Jun tiptoed into Sho’s kitchen and checked the fridge for ingredients to a perfect breakfast. He wasn’t too surprised that he didn’t find much to work with, three eggs, some green onions that thankfully didn’t look like they were past saving, miso paste and even a bit of tofu… Jun would make do with that.

Sho’s kitchen was well-equipped for someone who didn’t know how to properly chop a carrot, but it made Jun’s task a little easier. Like a miracle, he managed to make fresh miso soup with tofu and green onions, adding fresh tamago on a dish on the side. Not the breakfast of kings and queens but probably more than Sho usually ate with his amazing cooking skills.

Jun placed everything on a plate, added the fresh coffee poured from the machine and tiptoed back into Sho’s bedroom.

The sight he got there was priceless – Jun had to stifle a laugh as he watched Sho stretch all over the mattress, obviously just in the process of waking up. He looked cute, younger than when he was dressed and aware of the camera. This was one of the moments that made the wait worth it.

“Good morning, sleepyhead.” Jun placed the tray on Sho’s nightstand and climbed back into bed.

“Mhmmmwhattimeisit?” This time, Jun didn’t even try to stifle his laughter at Sho’s mumbling.

“Forgive me, I turned off your alarm.” Brushing some drool from Sho’s scruffy chin with his thumb, Jun leaned forward and stole a kiss before the other could protest. “But I made up for it by making breakfast.” 

Yes, it was definitely worth the wait.


End file.
